Moments of Innocence
by funvince
Summary: Tales of the relationship of Allen Walker and Lenalee Lee as friends, comrades in arms... and more.
1. Flight to Heaven

**Flight to Heaven**

_The air up there in the clouds is very pure and fine, bracing and delicious. And why shouldn't it be? —it is the same the angels breathe._

-Mark Twain

Allen loved to watch Lenalee fight akuma. He didn't often get a chance to do so for very long as he usually had his own enemies to battle, but perhaps it was best that way. Rarity had the quality of making the beautiful even more so.

And as odd as it might sound to describe as beautiful the sight of a boot-clad leg slamming into a metal monstrosity with more force than a sledgehammer, that was exactly the way to describe it. The way that the female Exorcist gracefully danced and flipped through the evening sky with her long, green hair flowing behind her…

It was like watching a hummingbird flit from branch to branch. Granted, this particular hummingbird tended to leave a trail of destruction in her wake, so perhaps it was not the best analogy.

Allen had always wanted to fly. Who didn't? Lenalee sometimes complained about the heaviness of her Dark Boots, but he thought it was a small price to pay for the ability to soar in the moonlit sky. He liked being around people, but it would be nice to get away sometimes and not have to worry about his left eye activating. It was tiring to discover that those he had thought were human were actually tools of the Earl of Millennium. His burden was not as heavy as those of Exorcists like Lavi who couldn't even tell who was an akuma until they were practically on top of him, but it felt just as disheartening.

"Allen! Watch out!"

He cursed to himself for daydreaming in the middle of a fight. He whirled around, activating his arm cannon, but he knew that he was too late. The akuma's blood virus wouldn't kill him, but the time it would take him to heal would leave him wide open to attack. He saw the bullets heading toward him and the sound of the akuma's mad cackle filled his ears, disorienting him for only a moment…

Allen found himself twenty feet in the air just as the ground exploded beneath him. Lenalee had grabbed him by the right arm and jumped straight up just as he was about to be shot. Not wasting any time taking in his good fortune, Allen fired off a volley of his energy stakes at the akuma who had just tried to kill him.

He made a direct hit and had just enough time to see the soul rise out of the body before his perspective was forcibly shifted as Lenalee whirled his body behind her and rocketed upward so she could destroy the last akuma with a vicious roundhouse kick into and through the ball-shaped creature above her.

And then there was silence. The silence that came after the explosions had stopped and the battle had ended; it would continue to exist until the people and animals that ran away returned to fill the void with their voices.

Allen looked up at the girl who was still holding him up with one arm and marveled once again at the lack of strain on her features. He felt no fear that she would drop him. He took a deep, cleansing breath of crisp air and looked at the vast countryside below him. Even with the smoldering ruins and scars in the landscape, he still felt a childish thrill at seeing the world from a bird's-eye view.

Not wanting to disturb the peace around them with his words, Allen gave his partner a smile and a thumbs-up of appreciation. Lenalee smiled back at him then turned her gaze to the stars. He thought about the soul that had drifted into the sky and wondered if it had gone to heaven. He hoped so, but he couldn't be sure. He glanced upward. For now, this was the closest he was going to get.

His arm was starting to ache from having to support his body weight, but any complaints he might have had died at the look of wistfulness on Lenalee's face. He remembered her telling him that she had spent three lonely years at the Black Order before her brother came, and he remembered thinking that she probably would not have lasted much longer than that.

He intended no slight on her resilience in that thought. She was one of the toughest people he knew, but it was just a fact that wild birds did not last long in captivity. A cage was a cage no matter how gilded its bars. He was glad that she could now fly free.

From the first time he saw her fight, he had admired the deadly beauty of her Innocence, but he had come to realize that it was the strength and vitality of the person wearing the boots that had really caught his attention.


	2. Boys Will Be Boys

**Boys Will Be Boys**

_Boys are beyond the range of anybody's sure understanding, at least when they are between the ages of 18 months and 90 years._

--James Thurber

Allen was such a silly, childish boy.

She was only a year older than him, but Lenalee felt that she was safe in reaching that conclusion. Oh, in the midst of battle Allen was quite levelheaded and serious, but the rest of the time anyone could hardly imagine that he was the same boy who was called the Destroyer of Time.

For all the trials and tribulations that he had gone through, he just seemed so _young_. It was true that the same description could easily be applied to older individuals like her brother, but Allen seemed young not as in _immature_ so much as he seemed young as in _innocent_. Of course she knew that he was anything but that.

Lenalee often found it quite frustrating to describe precisely what it was about her fellow Exorcist that gave off the impression that she had of him. He wasn't crazy and whiny like her brother who would probably be murdered in his sleep one day. Krory was silly in his own naïve and gullible way, but he somehow always managed to maintain an air of mournful dignity no matter how ridiculous he looked. Lavi was rowdy and playful, but he gave off the air and energy of a grown rascal rather than an adolescent.

Allen was different somehow. There was a quality about him that made one want to reach out and ruffle his white hair. It showed in the way he smiled with a mixture of good humor and shyness and the way he felt that he had to carry his burdens alone. He got flustered so easily, and it was great fun to tease him. The way he ate every meal like it was his last reminded her of a ravenous child after a hard day of playing. She did not believe for an instant that his appetite was all due to his Innocence. He wasn't the only parasitic type in the Order after all, and no one else took such sheer delight in food in all its qualities and quantities.

He never failed to make her smile with his earnest politeness. Even his 'dark side' was adorable. And Lenalee wouldn't have it any other way.

There were so many people in the Order who didn't have a sense of humor or even know how to have fun. _/cough Kanda cough/_ She was probably too young to be having maternal instincts, but she couldn't help but worry about him. She hated his left eye for taking away his smiles and making him seem older than he really was. She knew that it was an irrational hatred because eye or no eye, Allen would never stop wanting to save akuma. Yet she felt that he carried around more guilt than he deserved because of that eye.

Suddenly, the building shook and Lenalee struggled to keep the coffee tray she'd been bringing to the science department from tipping over. She sighed deeply. The random explosions and unnecessary property damage had been going on all day ever since Allen had returned from a mission with his damaged anti-akuma weapon. Komui had immediately broken out the giant drill and chainsaw and started chasing Allen around the headquarters.

She usually stayed out of those chases because while her brother was right that Allen's weapon had to be repaired she couldn't bring herself to subdue Allen and put him under her brother's sadistic 'doctoring.' The one time she tried he had looked at her with such pleading eyes she had immediately let him go. She still got embarrassed when she thought about it.

"Lenalee! You have to help me!"

Allen looked like he had seen better days. His hair was more disheveled than usual. His coat and face was covered in dust, and he was gripping his left arm like he was afraid someone was going to rip it off. That probably wasn't too far from the truth actually.

Lenalee shook her head in disbelief at the sight then she took out a handkerchief and wiped the smudge off his face. She said softly, "Oh, Allen. We both know how this is going to end. You're going to have to let nii-san look at your arm sooner or later."

"Easy for you to say!" Allen grumbled. "But forgive me if I don't enthusiastically jump into the lion's den."

Lenalee could not resist giggling at the Allen's petulant expression. She opened her mouth to apologize for her insensitivity when she heard her brother's voice boom down the hall.

"AL-LENN-KUNNN!"

A look of sheer panic came over Allen's face at the sound of rapid footsteps coming toward them. He grabbed her left hand with both of his gloved ones and drew it to his chest. "Lenalee, you know this place better than I do. Tell me where to hide!"

Damn, there was that pleading look in his eyes again. If Allen had a tail, he would probably be wagging it right now for sympathy. Lenalee felt herself weakening and with an exasperated sigh she said, "There's a maintenance closet behind that suit of armor. I don't think anyone's used it in years."

"Thanks, Lenalee!" Allen dashed toward the closet door. In his haste, he completely forgot to release Lenalee's hand and she found herself being dragged behind him.

"W-wait!"

But before the last syllable had even left her mouth, they were in the closet. Lenalee's body slammed into Allen's just as the door clicked shut behind her. She could feel her face growing warmer and she moved to pull away but froze when she heard footsteps outside the door.

"Chief! Will you stop this nonsense and get back to work?"

"I _am_ working! Isn't it part of our jobs to keep our Exorcists healthy and strong?"

"Maybe I would find you more convincing if you didn't have such a maniacal grin on your face!"

"So I'm not allowed to enjoy my job now?"

"That's not the point and you know it!"

It seemed that her brother and Reever were going to be arguing for some time. Lenalee tried again to quietly disengage herself from Allen but found that she could not. The closet was simply too small to move around in. There was hardly any space at all between the door and the wall that Allen was pressed against.

After several moments mentally debating whether she should leap out of the closet and run far, far away, she reluctantly concluded that her stupid conscience would not allow her to abandon Allen to her brother's untender mercy. She gave up on decorum and laid her head against his chest. She was glad that there was no light in the closet because her face was probably flushed.

"Am I your pillow now?" Allen asked. His words were colored with amusement which was slightly undermined by the nervous squeak in his voice. She imagined that if he could move, he'd be rubbing the back of his head at this moment.

"Shut up. It's drafty in here, and you're warm. And this is entirely your fault."

She was proud that, unlike Allen, her voice hadn't squeaked at all. Then to her complete shock, Allen wrapped his arms around her and drew her in closer to his body.

"Al-Allen?"

"You said you were cold." He rested his head of top of hers and whispered softly, "Thank you, Lenalee."

The boy was certainly full of surprises. Lenalee teased, "Always the gentleman, I see."

"For a lady? Always."

Despite the awkwardness, Lenalee had to grin when she heard the younger boy's heartbeat rapidly increasing. Poor Allen. He had to be mortified at the situation he was in. She frowned a bit. On the other hand, he was a boy, a teenage boy at that. Well, as long as he didn't try anything then she didn't mind if he got an illicit thrill out of this. It was actually quite nice and comfortable leaning into Allen like this. He was surprisingly muscular. Lenalee had to stifle a giggle. Who was the pervert again?

She still thought of him as a silly boy, but she had been wrong about one thing. He was definitely not a child.


	3. Lenalee's Lament

**Lenalee's Lament**

WARNING: Spoilers for episodes 50 and 57.

_Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all._

Dale Carnegie

"Allen-kun! Please answer me!"

Her voice was hoarse. Lenalee stumbled through the woods screaming out Allen's name. Her legs were throbbing with fatigue, but she barely noticed them in her panic. She had been searching all night, and she looked it. She was covered in scratches, there were leaves in her hair, her face was smudged and her dress was tattered. Her pigtails had been shaken loose, and she had to periodically brush green strands of hair away from her eyes.

"Where are you? Allen-kun!"

Her resolve not to cry had broken down hours ago. This had to be one of the worst days of her life. First, their ship had run into a swarm of akuma. There were dozens of them. Fortunately, most of them had ignored them as they seemed more interested in something going on in the mountains. But not all of them.

She and Allen had been forced to leave their friends to defend the ship while they went to investigate what had drawn the attention of so many akuma. To her horror, she discovered that Suman Dark, a fellow Exorcist and old friend, had Fallen.

Suman had betrayed the Order and handed the Earl the information of where the Exorcists out in the field could be located. And so, his Innocence, a weapon created by God, had turned against him. It had turned him into a gigantic, hideous monstrosity. Allen had gone to stop the former human from harming any people and to try to save his soul. Even though Suman was a traitor, even though his cowardice had led to the deaths of 6 Exorcists and 142 Finders, Allen refused to let him die without a fight.

Lenalee had watched him go, frozen with indecision. She didn't know how to feel or what to do. She couldn't just allow Allen to fight alone, but she could not bear to kill one of the few friends she had. Because she knew that was how it would end. No one had ever been able to reverse a Fall.

She had told Allen some time ago (when she saved him against his will) that the difference between him and her was that he wanted to save the entire world. The world she wanted to save was much smaller. It was one that she could see and touch. It was made of her friends and family. Suman was a part of that world. And now…

"Lenalee!"

She saw the familiar eye patch and the sight of red hair and cried out, "Lavi!"

Lavi grabbed her by the shoulders just as she sagged forward in relief. He said, "Are you okay, Lenalee? You're shaking."

"I'm fine. More importantly, hurry! We have to find those two quickly." Her voice shook and the tears started again. "I saw a bright light in the sky. But no matter how much I searched I couldn't find them!"

"We'll find them," Lavi replied. His voice was resolute with purpose.

They set out to search and they quickly ran into Timcampy, Allen's winged communications golem. It was being chased by akuma, which the two Exorcists quickly made short work of. Then Lenalee hugged the golden creature tightly to her chest in happiness.

"Thank goodness! Tim, where's Allen-kun? Is he with Suman?"

It may have been her imagination, but she thought the golem hesitated for a moment it spat out a gently glowing orb. At first, Lenalee didn't recognize it. Or maybe she didn't want to recognize it. It was an Innocence, but to see it in its pure form like this meant…

Lavi's eyes widened in disbelief. "Innocence? Don't tell me it's Allen's!"

Lenalee's hands shook as she gently took the orb in her hands. The deadened voice that came out of her mouth did not sound like her own. "No, it's not. This is… Suman's Innocence."

She felt shock and worry about how Suman was doing, but underneath those emotions was a sense of relief. Relief that Allen would still be able fight by her side when this nightmare was over. She felt like a horrible person.

Timcampy led the two of them deep into the forest where it had last seen Allen. The cluster of branches above them grew denser and less light was able to make it through the trees. With each step, Lenalee could feel her dread mounting. And finally, Timcampy stopped moving forward and simply hovered above what appeared to be a dark patch of dirt. Lenalee blinked back tears when she realized the stain covering the bare ground was _blood_.

There was so much of it...

Lavi turned his head away and asked gruffly, "Tim, what happened?"

Lenalee opened her mouth to demand that Lavi take back his words. She wasn't prepared. She didn't want to know. As long as she didn't know...

But it was too late.

Timcampy began its playback. The images and sounds blurred past her as she watched in an uncomprehending stupor. Allen had succeeded in getting Suman changed back into his human form, but as Allen reached out to embrace the poor man, a man with gray skin showed up and destroyed Suman's body causing the Innocence within him to fall onto the ground. Allen's desperate efforts to save the Exorcist had been for nothing; his victory had turned to ashes. An enraged Allen confronted the gray-skinned man in the suit and top hat (Lavi told her the man was a Noah, one of the Earl's minions). Then there was the sounding of screaming.

It was a scream of shock and anguish, agony and horror.

The Noah had a revealed the power of being able to phase through matter by sticking his right arm through Allen's chest, immobolizing him. Then he had used his other hand to grab Allen's right arm, the one bearing the Innocence, and ripped it off as easily as one would snap a chicken bone.

The last thing Timcampy saw was Allen yelling at it to escape with Suman's Innocence. After a moment's hesitation, it flew off. The recording faded out after that point.

Lenalee sank to her knees and placed her face in her hands. "It can't be! Allen-kun!"

Lavi sounded dazed as he said, "Allen-kun is probably already…"

His voice broke off and he visibly composed himself. "It seems Allen-kun got separated from Timcampy here. He met that Noah, and after his left arm was destroyed, he knew he had to protect Suman's Innocence."

_Don't talk like that! Don't talk like he's already… dead._

Lenalee walked over to the bloodstain and touched it with her fingers. And that was when it became real. This bloodstain… this was where he was... but… he's gone. Allen-kun was gone...

The sound of her sobbing echoed through the forest.

(line)

The trip back to the ship was silent and heavy with grief. Lenalee just wanted to sleep and to forget. But she knew if she closed her eyes the only thing she would see would be the death of her friends. She was glad that Lavi was handling the travel arrangements because she was certainly in no condition to fly.

What was she supposed to do now? Suman had a wife and child! And Allen… She had known him for only a short time but somehow it had felt like much longer. Maybe if she hadn't been so indecisive, maybe if she had been braver…

"Stop it."

Startled, Lenalee looked over at Lavi.

"You're blaming yourself, aren't you?"

Lenalee just stared at him.

"Look, I don't know what happened out there. But I do know that Allen wouldn't want to see you like this."

Lenalee smiled bitterly. "We don't always get what we want."

Silence settled over them again.

When they got to the dock she saw her friends surrounding a Chinese man with grey hair and beard. He was wearing white robes, and she recognized the designs on them.

"You're from the Asian branch?"

"The name's Wong," the man replied in a deep baritone. "My commander dispatched me here with an urgent message."

"A message?" Lavi asked.

"Our unit discovered Allen Walker, and he is currently with us."

Lenalee's eyes snapped upward. Her heart started racing and she could barely force out the word, "Really?"

The older man nodded gravely. "Yes."

Lenalee grabbed Wong's forearms in a fit of desperation. "Is he… is Allen-kun all right? Please, Wong-san! Let me see Allen-kun immediately!"

The look of compassion on the man's face evoked more pain in Lenalee then she would have thought possible.

"Your orders are to depart right away," Wong replied simply. "You'll be saying goodbye to Allen Walker here in China."

"Goodbye?" Lenalee repeated as if she had just heard a foreign word. There was a tone of disbelief in her voice. "You mean Allen-kun… is dead?"

"I know it must be hard for you," Wong said gently. "But please think calmly about this."

Lenalee released Wong's arms and bowed her head in resignation. He was right. She was being ridiculous. There was no way that Allen could have survived such horrible injuries. She had felt a slight hope when she and Lavi hadn't discovered his body but it seemed that the Order had simply beaten them to it. Perhaps it was better that way.

Lavi said gently, "Lenalee… You saw Tim's memories too, right? He lost his left arm. At that time, it became impossible for him to be an Exorcist. We just have to accept it and move on."

Lenalee didn't reply. She remained silent the entire time it took the crew to ready the ship for its voyage to Japan and set out. Even after they had sailed miles away from any visible land, she simply sat and stared lifelessly out a port window, not even responding when her friend and newly appointed Exorcist Miranda tried to give her the new uniform that Headquarters had designed.

"Lenalee..." Miranda started to say something but stopped when she realized that she had no idea what to say.

The old, short Chinese man known only as the Bookman gently drew the older woman off to the side and said, "Leave her be. She's trying to pull herself together. She regrets leaving Allen-kun's side last night. She blames herself."

There was suddenly the sound of breaking class. The group of Exorcists turned their heads and saw that Lavi had, in a fit of anger, broken a window with his fist. Lavi, the normally easy-going and jocular teenager, was now sending Lenalee a glare filled with frustration and weariness.

"Cut it out already! That was a helpless situation. Last night, we were all fighting with everything we had. We couldn't have saved them no matter what! It's war! It's unavoidable! Get over it and stand up!"

Lenalee burst into tears.

The others glared viciously at Lavi. To his credit, the red-haired boy looked down with a look of shame on his features.

Lenalee wanted to tell him that she wasn't mad at him, but she couldn't stop herself from crying long enough to do so.

_I had forgotten that I'm not the only one in pain. I'm sorry, Lavi..._

The old man cleared his throat, catching everyone's attention. He said, "Because I believe in the prophecy of the Destroyer of Time, I don't believe for one second that the boy is dead."

Lenalee looked up with startled eyes.

The Bookman strolled over to the broken window and clasped his hands behind his back. His tone was conversational and casual. "I asked the supervisor to put me in Cross's unit because I had an interest in that boy. I thought perhaps the "Time" in the "Destroyer of Time" might refer to a certain person. Time… Millennium… so perhaps Allen Walker is the one who will destroy the Millennium Earl? If that's so, he wouldn't die… in a place like that."

The Bookman was well-known for his lack of sentiment. As a seeker and guardian of truth, he was not the type of man who sugarcoated the harshness of reality. If he said that he believed Allen was alive, then he had a reason to believe.

_Thank you, Bookman._

The power of the older man's belief warmed her. She wiped off her tears with the back of her hands. Her grief was still too fresh for her to be as optimistic as the Bookman about the chances of Allen's survival, but she was now calm enough to function.

Functioning was not much, but for now it would have to be enough.

(line)

AN: I'm sorry that it took so long to get this chapter out. My new job is taking more out of me than I thought it would, and it doesn't help that the place I'm staying at for the summer doesn't have internet access. I'll update when I can but I make no promises.


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